New data shows Apple's iPhone 4S launched helped it gain market share in the U.S. and U.K., though price sensitivity in Europe has allegedly cost Apple ground.

Apple's share of smartphone markets across the globe were revealed in a new report from London-based research firm the Kantar Group, as detailed by Reuters. The study found that the iPhone has been gaining ground in Great Britain, the U.S. and Australia, though "this trend is far from universal."

Problems for Apple exist in Europe, where Google's Android platform has been making gains because of low-priced devices. In particular, Apple saw its smartphone share drop from 29 percent to 20 percent in France, where the report said there are "increasing signs of price sensitivity."

Similarly, Apple's smartphone share fell from 27 percent to 22 percent in Germany, while other iPhone drops were seen in Italy and Spain. The report noted that sales of "the expensive Apple model," the new iPhone 4S, were affected by weakening economies across Europe.

While Apple's smartphone share has apparently dropped across Europe, Google has maintained control. The study found that Android accounts for between 46 and 61 percent in all markets.

Business and consumer confidence in Europe are particularly low, as the continent is in the midst of a financial crisis stemming from government debt. The report noted Europeans are "keeping a lid on their expenses," which is likely to have affected iPhone sales outside of the U.K.

As for the U.S., the report largely aligns with a separate study conducted by the NPD Group, which revealed last week that Apple's iPhone and Google Android currently account for 82 percent of the smartphone market. Android-based smartphones had a 53 percent share by the end of October, while Apple's iPhone accounted for 29 percent.

The latest report is until the end of November, so a rush on the new iPhone and the cheaper old iPhones still leaves Apple a distant second to Android in the US, Australia and UK, and not even in the race in many other countries.

At least the new iPhone and cheaper 4 and 3 have dented Androids growth in three countries. Something to chear about for Apple fans - at least until the big companies release their flagship ICS and start blowing apple away again. I know I am holding off on a new phone until the new HTC ICS top-end phone.

I relate this only to point out that sales of Droids etc. do not mean the loss of a sale for Apple .... I was with a realtor who had a new Droid yesterday, we were both waiting on a home inspection that took several hours. She had to plug her Droid in to use it as it never stayed charged for more than half a day she explained. She spent some time looking over my iPhone 4s and was blown away. Siri litteraly shocked her. When I explained iCloud and pulled out my iPad and also told her about ATV she was drooling. My MBPro was the final blow, she was in love. The only snag was she needed Windows for two applictions not available on Mac, so i launched VMWare and asked if she preferred XP, Vista or 7? She called today and asked if I could give her an hour or so to put together an Apple Eco system shopping list for her and her family, they had decided to convert entirely. This happens to me several times a month.

From Apple ][ - to new Mac Pro I've owned them all.Long on AAPL so biased"Google doesn't sell you anything, Google just sells you!"

Apple might be the first casualty in the coming prepaid wars. People say they want their phones to have resale value but that is only if you buy them at $650+ in the first place. iPhone 4 class Android phones are all over my local CL for barely $150-200. At some point Apple's margins are either going to take a hit, or they are going to cede marketshare.

Problems for Apple exist in Europe, where Google's Android platform has been making gains because of low-priced devices. In particular, Apple saw its smartphone share drop from 29 percent to 20 percent in France, where the report said there are "increasing signs of price sensitivity."

Bullshit. iPhones can be had for free.

It isn't price sensitivity. People simply prefer other phones. If it were price sensitivity, they could demonstrate that all expensive phones are lagging in sales.

But the iPhone spans the price gamut. So at any and all price points, people see other phones that they like better.

During the iPhone 4 cycle- they could not keep up with demand for 9 months. The have not been able to keep up with demand for the iPhone 4s for 3 months now and they have yet to launch China. At this point, it does not matter how much they lower the price, they cannot make them faster than they currently are. Only when they start to have extra capacity after 3 months or so will they need to look at selling them cheaper. Then they will have to decide if they make more money selling more at a lower margin.
If you look at the Mac - they have a 5% global share - but take most of the profits and continue to grow faster than the general PC market (even without counting the iPad as a PC).

I relate this only to point out that sales of Droids etc. do not mean the loss of a sale for Apple .... I was with a realtor who had a new Droid yesterday, we were both waiting on a home inspection that took several hours. She had to plug her Droid in to use it as it never stayed charged for more than half a day she explained. She spent some time looking over my iPhone 4s and was blown away. Siri litteraly shocked her. When I explained iCloud and pulled out my iPad and also told her about ATV she was drooling. My MBPro was the final blow, she was in love. The only snag was she needed Windows for two applictions not available on Mac, so i launched VMWare and asked if she preferred XP, Vista or 7? She called today and asked if I could give her an hour or so to put together an Apple Eco system shopping list for her and her family, they had decided to convert entirely. This happens to me several times a month.

Once someone sees all the pieces working together in action they usually see the value and why Apple products cost more. This is where Apple needs more focus, showing all the extra value you get for your money with Apple.

I relate this only to point out that sales of Droids etc. do not mean the loss of a sale for Apple .... I was with a realtor who had a new Droid yesterday, we were both waiting on a home inspection that took several hours. She had to plug her Droid in to use it as it never stayed charged for more than half a day she explained. She spent some time looking over my iPhone 4s and was blown away. Siri litteraly shocked her. When I explained iCloud and pulled out my iPad and also told her about ATV she was drooling. My MBPro was the final blow, she was in love. The only snag was she needed Windows for two applictions not available on Mac, so i launched VMWare and asked if she preferred XP, Vista or 7? She called today and asked if I could give her an hour or so to put together an Apple Eco system shopping list for her and her family, they had decided to convert entirely. This happens to me several times a month.

Forget those numbers. Apple's biggest problem is their ridiculous currency hedging. They do their pricing by assuming Euro/USD parity, while the Euro has been around 1,30 - 1,40 USD for most of the year.
Assume the iPad at 499 USD should be around 360-380 Euros. In fact it is 479 EUR.
So everyone I know travelling to the US will bring back Apple stuff and make friends and family happy or sell it with a decent margin on ebay.

I guess in Asia the same thing is happening.

So take like 5-10% off the US Numbers (minimum) and add half of that to the EU numbers and half of this to the Asian ones.

Apple should definitely reconsider their pricing in Europe, if they don't want to be suffering for years trying to regain that lost market share. There is no reason why an iPad in Greece should cost 30% more than in the US ... Ridiculous...

Apple might be the first casualty in the coming prepaid wars. People say they want their phones to have resale value but that is only if you buy them at $650+ in the first place. iPhone 4 class Android phones are all over my local CL for barely $150-200. At some point Apple's margins are either going to take a hit, or they are going to cede marketshare.

So far market share hasn't meant a damn thing to Apple. As someone else pointed out, Apple is selling them as fast as it can make them. Add to that that developers make more money with iOS than with Android.

2012 will be an interesting year. This coming year should answer the question about whether or not Android really is affecting Apple and if Apple will have to change its game plan in any way.

The latest report is until the end of November, so a rush on the new iPhone and the cheaper old iPhones still leaves Apple a distant second to Android in the US, Australia and UK, and not even in the race in many other countries.

At least the new iPhone and cheaper 4 and 3 have dented Androids growth in three countries. Something to chear about for Apple fans - at least until the big companies release their flagship ICS and start blowing apple away again. I know I am holding off on a new phone until the new HTC ICS top-end phone.

"Blowing Apple away." How, exactly? Apple is selling 30 million iPhones a QUARTER. Apple is one company...Android is merely an OS that runs on devices from dozens of manufacturers. The "Android market share" numbers are therefore utterly meaningless. What does it affect? Surely not app development, where iOS is still winning the battle.

As for what phone you'd like, well...whatever. That's another matter. To me there is nothing like an iPhone. There are those I like, but they still fall short of the overall iPhone experience.

I can only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow doesn't look good either.

So far market share hasn't meant a damn thing to Apple. As someone else pointed out, Apple is selling them as fast as it can make them. Add to that that developers make more money with iOS than with Android.

2012 will be an interesting year. This coming year should answer the question about whether or not Android really is affecting Apple and if Apple will have to change its game plan in any way.

I think apple will definitely have to change. People in reality don't care to much about OS, they care about price and features. Screen size is one of the growing features people want. When people find out that the iPhone 4s is not the iPhone 4gs they start to want an Android, Why? they think 4g>3g. So it comes to the point why should I pay the same for a smaller screen and slower data? (and for some consumers the list of things they would have to compromise is larger, keyboard, Removable battery, Having to use iTunes etc.

A "decline" from 27% of phones sold to 22% of phones sold is not the same as a decline from 27% of the installed base to 22% of the installed base - and even that is not necessarily meaningful without the context of real number.

Is the current 22% of a number that is twice the overall size as the 27% for example?

I have not heard of any massive migration from iOS devices to the competition. Could it be that all the android activations are due to several factors - normal upgrade cycle - upgrades from non-smart phones to smart-phones - and price points - as well as iPhone not being offered in every nook and cranny where cell phones are sold.

My daughter has been through a series of droid phones in the past couple years and is looking forward to a white iPhone on Verizon when her upgrade eligibility comes up in a few months.

I think apple will definitely have to change. People in reality don't care to much about OS, they care about price and features. Screen size is one of the growing features people want. When people find out that the iPhone 4s is not the iPhone 4gs they start to want an Android, Why? they think 4g>3g. So it comes to the point why should I pay the same for a smaller screen and slower data? (and for some consumers the list of things they would have to compromise is larger, keyboard, Removable battery, Having to use iTunes etc.

Okay, so none of your points (screen size, 4g, keyboard size, iTunes etc.) have had any effect on Apple's sales so far... have you got anything else?

You'll need to show that Apple's sales have actually slowed to make any of those points valid.

I relate this only to point out that sales of Droids etc. do not mean the loss of a sale for Apple

Indeed and I would be curious to know the sales numbers. It's possible that, like with the whole iPads falling under 60% talk, this drop in share is due not to a drop in sales but an increase in overall buys including folks that never before considered getting a smart phone being lured in by the cheap prices of the Android phones.

I would also be curious to see more details about how these numbers are being produced. Because often it is by sales but they don't adjust for returns. So someone buys an iPhone, a Galaxy etc and then returns it to go back to their feature phone or a competitor but the initial sale is still in the share, skewing the numbers. Or they do it on numbers shipped without considering that half a shipment could be sitting on a shelf not being sold.

People in reality don't care to much about OS, they care about price and features.

To a degree you are correct on this one. however

Quote:

Screen size is one of the growing features people want.

the 5% that are technogeek snobs perhaps, but most of the world wants something they can use. Which is the same reason that the OS name doesn't matter as much as if they can use the dang thing.

Quote:

When people find out that the iPhone 4s is not the iPhone 4gs they start to want an Android, Why? they think 4g>3g.

Again, only to the technogeek snobs. The overwhelming majority wants a phone that works. Period. They don't understand the difference and don't care to learn it so long as their calls go through and they can get online and do what they want to do.

And right now with carriers having spotty 4g coverage and periodic outages that bring phones down to 3g and sometimes even Edge, being 4g isn't really all that it could be. Making Apple's wait not that big of a deal.

Quote:

(and for some consumers the list of things they would have to compromise is larger, keyboard, Removable battery, Having to use iTunes etc.

Again, only issues for the technogeek snobs. The other 95% don't care about any of that. it's price, support of things go south etc that they care about. And a fair bit of that group are lining up to get iPhones.

Okay, so none of your points (screen size, 4g, keyboard size, iTunes etc.) have had any effect on Apple's sales so far... have you got anything else?

You'll need to show that Apple's sales have actually slowed to make any of those points valid.

I have noticed I job many customers going from iPhones to Androids 4.3-4.65 inch screens seems to be the phones they move to. When I ask why they are moving most say I want a larger screen. Some becuase I dropped my iPhone and need a replacement.

I relate this only to point out that sales of Droids etc. do not mean the loss of a sale for Apple .... I was with a realtor who had a new Droid yesterday, we were both waiting on a home inspection that took several hours. She had to plug her Droid in to use it as it never stayed charged for more than half a day she explained. She spent some time looking over my iPhone 4s and was blown away. Siri litteraly shocked her. When I explained iCloud and pulled out my iPad and also told her about ATV she was drooling. My MBPro was the final blow, she was in love. The only snag was she needed Windows for two applictions not available on Mac, so i launched VMWare and asked if she preferred XP, Vista or 7? She called today and asked if I could give her an hour or so to put together an Apple Eco system shopping list for her and her family, they had decided to convert entirely. This happens to me several times a month.

I have noticed I job many customers going from iPhones to Androids 4.3-4.65 inch screens seems to be the phones they move to. When I ask why they are moving most say I want a larger screen. Some becuase I dropped my iPhone and need a replacement.

Really?! In my business I have experienced hundreds of people switching to iPhone because the Android system was too frustrating because of lack of cohesion.

I think apple will definitely have to change. People in reality don't care to much about OS, they care about price and features. Screen size is one of the growing features people want. When people find out that the iPhone 4s is not the iPhone 4gs they start to want an Android, Why? they think 4g>3g. So it comes to the point why should I pay the same for a smaller screen and slower data? (and for some consumers the list of things they would have to compromise is larger, keyboard, Removable battery, Having to use iTunes etc.

You don't get it. Your analysis of what people want is flawed and not based on any real evidence. Apple's success is not about specs. The iPhone has never had the best camera, or the fastest processor, or the biggest screen, or even the best features. The iPhone is more than the sum of its parts. Apple's blend of hardware and software cannot be duplicated by anyone...and they've tried.

So no, Apple does not have to offer a bigger screen. Apple does not have to release a 4G phone right now. Apple does not have to anything, because they are selling phones by the tens of millions. And they'll keep doing so, updating their products over time as they see fit.

I can only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow doesn't look good either.

You don't get it. Your analysis of what people want is flawed and not based on any real evidence. Apple's success is not about specs. The iPhone has never had the best camera, or the fastest processor, or the biggest screen, or even the best features. The iPhone is more than the sum of its parts. Apple's blend of hardware and software cannot be duplicated by anyone...and they've tried.

So no, Apple does not have to offer a bigger screen. Apple does not have to release a 4G phone right now. Apple does not have to anything, because they are selling phones by the tens of millions. And they'll keep doing so, updating their products over time as they see fit.

The new iPhone was not available for half of the time period mentioned in the data so it may not be an accurate representation of what is really happening. It could be the same as looking at the sales data for just the 2 weeks after the iPhone 4S launch. It would probably favor Apple but wouldn't mean as much looking at overall trends.

What would be interesting is to see the data broken down by country by month. If the November data was looking more promising, that would reflect a more steady state set of numbers for iPhone sales.

Even though Europe is an important market, the most interesting place for Apple is China. That data would be interesting since those numbers, from past earnings reports, has grown by leaps and bounds. And once they can start selling the new iPhone, we should continue to see a growth in revenues and earnings, which is most important to investors.

Forget those numbers. Apple's biggest problem is their ridiculous currency hedging. They do their pricing by assuming Euro/USD parity, while the Euro has been around 1,30 - 1,40 USD for most of the year.
Assume the iPad at 499 USD should be around 360-380 Euros. In fact it is 479 EUR.
So everyone I know travelling to the US will bring back Apple stuff and make friends and family happy or sell it with a decent margin on ebay.

I guess in Asia the same thing is happening.

So take like 5-10% off the US Numbers (minimum) and add half of that to the EU numbers and half of this to the Asian ones.

Apple should definitely reconsider their pricing in Europe, if they don't want to be suffering for years trying to regain that lost market share. There is no reason why an iPad in Greece should cost 30% more than in the US ... Ridiculous...

Max

Prices quoted in the US do not have sales tax in them while prices in Europe have VAT included. Take out the VAT (which Apple does not keep) and the prices are not so bad.

You know, I was talking to my Aunt Minny and she said that a friend of hers was talking to her pastor at the church who said that he had been talking to someone at the bake sale who had heard that Joe, who is the local plumber, has a brother that bought a phone that he said was smart but it wasn't from Apple... or maybe he bought some Snapple because it was on sale and he's smart that way... or...

For the price conscious potential iPhone adopter, the iPhone 4S may be too expensive but the iPhone 4 is tempting. However, I think the $99 iPhone 4 only having 8GB of flash is a disincentive. The iPhone 4 may not be the fastest phone, but it's by no means slow and looking the same as the more expensive iPhone 4S are pluses. Given the size of apps, movies or music collections nowadays, only having 8GB of non-expandable memory can be a deal-breaker. Pulling things down from the cloud maybe a good feature, but it's not always the most convenient or cost-effective due to data plans. If the $99 iPhone 4 had 16GB of flash memory it would be much better positioned to prevent the price conscious potential iPhone adopter from turning to alternatives. The iPhone 4S having a faster SoC, better camera, and Siri are enough to make it distinct from the iPhone 4 so I don't think cannibalization from a 16GB iPhone 4 is that big a concern.

Apple will continue to increase their position of owning the lion's share of the industry profits in the smartphone and embedded space.

When will the tipping point reach that the Samsungs, HTCs and more of the globe start to pull out?

It's going to be fun watching them fall.

If things appear to be going the way they seem, Android is being used to drive erosion of the feature phone segment. For the average consumer however, the Android seems to be ending up a gateway device for the iPhone.

That being said, a bunch of conspiracy theories can be considered around this - just for the fun of it.

1. Apple and Google colluded to undermine RIM and Microsoft, with Nokia absorbing the aftershock of the feature phone market erosion. The pretense of competition is provided to distract from the real intent, and the fanboys led unsuspecting into the fray to bolster appearances. This is supported by the fact that Apple has no direct lawsuits against Google, for example.

2. Nokia was the actual target with RIM being unwitting victims. Microsoft took a hit initially, but was positioning to roll out a new mobile OS, and was in the best position to absorb the shock and come back. Again same approach as above, but focussed on eroding Nokia instead. This also is supported by the way that Microsoft conveniently stepped in and managed license agreements against Android among the handset makers.

3. Initially Google was playing nice with Android, but got greedy and decided to go for broke. This left both Apple and Microsoft with having to manage between them a countering strategy (covered by the usual prickly diatribe to distract), that allowed Redmond to monitize licensing of patents against Android handset makers and Apple to draw fire with a series of lawsuits directed at the handset makers.

4. (Make up your own conspiracy theory!)

If you are going to insist on being an ass, at least demonstrate the intelligence to be a smart one

If things appear to be going the way they seem, Android is being used to drive erosion of the feature phone segment. For the average consumer however, the Android seems to be ending up a gateway device for the iPhone.

That being said, a bunch of conspiracy theories can be considered around this - just for the fun of it.

1. Apple and Google colluded to undermine RIM and Microsoft, with Nokia absorbing the aftershock of the feature phone market erosion. The pretense of competition is provided to distract from the real intent, and the fanboys led unsuspecting into the fray to bolster appearances. This is supported by the fact that Apple has no direct lawsuits against Google, for example.

2. Nokia was the actual target with RIM being unwitting victims. Microsoft took a hit initially, but was positioning to roll out a new mobile OS, and was in the best position to absorb the shock and come back. Again same approach as above, but focussed on eroding Nokia instead. This also is supported by the way that Microsoft conveniently stepped in and managed license agreements against Android among the handset makers.

3. Initially Google was playing nice with Android, but got greedy and decided to go for broke. This left both Apple and Microsoft with having to manage between them a countering strategy (covered by the usual prickly diatribe to distract), that allowed Redmond to monitize licensing of patents against Android handset makers and Apple to draw fire with a series of lawsuits directed at the handset makers.

4. (Make up your own conspiracy theory!)

A man after my own heart. Things are often not as they appear, and business relationships are in constant flux.

Business and consumer confidence in Europe are particularly low, as the continent is in the midst of a financial crisis stemming from government debt.

The media are making this problem harder to solve by misreporting it. This is a crisis stemming from bank bailouts, which is private debt that governments assumed. Except for Greece, the countries in trouble had relatively low debt and decreasing deficits before this started. Now Europe is being crippled by government austerity programs, which amount to trying to get the bailout money back from people who didn't cause the problems, and killing economic recovery in the process.

It would also be accurate to call this a crisis stemming from a currency union which isn't a true economic union, which makes the system unstable under this kind of economic shock. Thinking this all stems from government overspending leads to the false conclusion that reducing government spending will help.

It makes sense to choose another phone since people in many European countries can't benefit (much) from the only new feature the iphone 4s has, Siri. Also, I think the talk of "world phone" is nonsense for many in the EU (I hadn't even heard of cdma network until the iPhone 4s was released), which also may drive people away from upgrading to 4s and choose a droid instead. I am waiting for iPhone 5, but if that disappoints too, then I'll stick with my 3gs.

I relate this only to point out that sales of Droids etc. do not mean the loss of a sale for Apple .... I was with a realtor who had a new Droid yesterday, we were both waiting on a home inspection that took several hours. She had to plug her Droid in to use it as it never stayed charged for more than half a day she explained. She spent some time looking over my iPhone 4s and was blown away. Siri litteraly shocked her. When I explained iCloud and pulled out my iPad and also told her about ATV she was drooling. My MBPro was the final blow, she was in love. The only snag was she needed Windows for two applictions not available on Mac, so i launched VMWare and asked if she preferred XP, Vista or 7? She called today and asked if I could give her an hour or so to put together an Apple Eco system shopping list for her and her family, they had decided to convert entirely. This happens to me several times a month.

Yes, I would say the same for my iphone and ipad but not the MBPro. I used MBPro for 4 years now and wanted to love the device because I spent so much $ on it. But I have to say it does has a very pretty UI and will attract people on the first sight. But everything went down hill when I really want to do some productive work. Even the out of box Finder is a pain to use. Now I either boot to Linux or Windows most of the time, and maybe OSX couple times a month.

I think apple will definitely have to change. People in reality don't care to much about OS, they care about price and features. Screen size is one of the growing features people want. When people find out that the iPhone 4s is not the iPhone 4gs they start to want an Android, Why? they think 4g>3g...

Apple is the 2nd most valued (market cap) company in the world. It'll change if and when it wants to.

The latest report is until the end of November, so a rush on the new iPhone and the cheaper old iPhones still leaves Apple a distant second to Android in the US, Australia and UK, and not even in the race in many other countries.

At least the new iPhone and cheaper 4 and 3 have dented Androids growth in three countries. Something to chear about for Apple fans - at least until the big companies release their flagship ICS and start blowing apple away again. I know I am holding off on a new phone until the new HTC ICS top-end phone.

Why don't you buy a sub $200 PAYG phone, that's where Android's marketshare is coming from, not that it's worth all that much.

Now has Apple continued to sell more iPhones than they sold before, that is far more important.